Liberty4All
New Member
He is a short summary of our OCI process.
We applied as a group (family of 4). Please read the instructions at individual Consulate for specifics about photos and other particulars. Even though the application goes to the same place in India, the instructions are not uniform among different consulates. Following are what I submitted to NY CGI.
First, I filled the application online through http://ociindia.nic.in/ociindia/OnlineOCIRegistrationG.jsp. Once done filling the application, when I tried to save it, it printed Form A and Form B. Separate Form A had to be sent for each of us and only one Form B was required for the whole family.
I included the following documents:
1) For me - Form A (with photograph pasted), my US Passport Copy (only the 2 pages that have particulars), my Indian Passport Copy (all the relevant pages other than visa pages)
2) Same for my wife
3) For my son (had PIO) - Form A (with photograph pasted), his US Passport Copy (only the 2 pages that have particulars), his PIO Copy, his Birth Certificate, my Indian Passport Copy (I included only the first 2 pages)
4) For my daughter (did not have PIO) - Form A (with photograph pasted), her US Passport Copy (only the 2 pages that have particulars), her Birth Certificate, my Indian Passport Copy (I included only the first 2 pages)
5) Form B - One for all 4 of us
+ One more set of all of the above.
I attached 3 additional photos for each of us in Form A of the individual on the first set. I had conflicting information from the forum. So I attached 3 additional photographs to play it safe.
I attached a money order for $ 850.00 (275.00 each for me, my wife and daughter + $ 25.00 for my son since he already had PIO) to my Form A on the first set. There is an additional fee of $20.00 for the family that could have been included then or could be sent when the passports were mailed to NY CGI once the OCI is granted.
I took the photos at home, went to www.epassportphoto.com, sized it according to Indian Photo requirements, saved it, printed it at Costco and cut them to individual photos. The photo instructions are the most confusing. They need to be taken with a light background but not white. That is the main reason I took them myself. I made them off white. But, many people are doing them with a blue background. Some people were successful with a plain white background taken at Costco, CVS etc.
All photocopies (passports, PIO, Birth Certificate) had to be self attested as "True copy of the original" with our signature. I attested them for my son and daughter with my signature.
I mailed them using USPS Priority mail with Delivery confirmation. Then I started following the status using http://ociindia.nic.in/ociindia/OnlineOCIenquiry.jsp
Here is my timeline:
Mailed to NYCGI:1/09/2009
App Received by NYCGI:1/12/2009
Acknowledged: 1/23/2009
Photos Scanned: 1/29/2009
OCI Granted: 1/31/2009
Documents Printed: 2/03/2009
Dispatched to NYCGI: 2/04/2009
Received at NYCGI: 2/11/2009
OCI Received (in person): 2/16/2009
Once the OCI was received at the consulate, I went directly to get them stamped. I went to the consulate at around 9:00 AM. There was a line of may be 50 people. The doors opened at 9:10 AM. I Went in at 9:25 AM. The guy who was managing the line and directing people asked me to go to Counter # 3 for OCI. The gentleman who was in the counter looked like he was new to the job. I gave him print outs of the online status. He asked for the Indian passports and cancelled them right there and gave them back to me. Then, I gave him the US Passports and the PIO card for my son. He asked me to come back between 12:30 and 1:00 PM.
I went back around 12:30 PM. There was a line for collecting the OCI (actually a group of around 30 people gathered around the counter). The same guy opened the counter at 12:52 PM. Then one after another started going to the counter and got the passport and the OCI booklet after presenting the name. This process was so inefficient. He had dispatched only 8 or so in 15 minutes. Then we all suggested doing it the other way. Call the names on the passport and the respective person will collect it. Once this process started, it was dispatched to all of us in less than 3 minutes.
All in all, the process was smooth and took 5 weeks. This has been the smoothest of all my immigration dealings.
Thanks to all the members who passed along much needed information.
Good Luck to you all.
Note:
In addition to this wonderful site, I had gathered information from http://www.immihelp.com/nri/overseascitizenshipindia/oci-documents.html
We applied as a group (family of 4). Please read the instructions at individual Consulate for specifics about photos and other particulars. Even though the application goes to the same place in India, the instructions are not uniform among different consulates. Following are what I submitted to NY CGI.
First, I filled the application online through http://ociindia.nic.in/ociindia/OnlineOCIRegistrationG.jsp. Once done filling the application, when I tried to save it, it printed Form A and Form B. Separate Form A had to be sent for each of us and only one Form B was required for the whole family.
I included the following documents:
1) For me - Form A (with photograph pasted), my US Passport Copy (only the 2 pages that have particulars), my Indian Passport Copy (all the relevant pages other than visa pages)
2) Same for my wife
3) For my son (had PIO) - Form A (with photograph pasted), his US Passport Copy (only the 2 pages that have particulars), his PIO Copy, his Birth Certificate, my Indian Passport Copy (I included only the first 2 pages)
4) For my daughter (did not have PIO) - Form A (with photograph pasted), her US Passport Copy (only the 2 pages that have particulars), her Birth Certificate, my Indian Passport Copy (I included only the first 2 pages)
5) Form B - One for all 4 of us
+ One more set of all of the above.
I attached 3 additional photos for each of us in Form A of the individual on the first set. I had conflicting information from the forum. So I attached 3 additional photographs to play it safe.
I attached a money order for $ 850.00 (275.00 each for me, my wife and daughter + $ 25.00 for my son since he already had PIO) to my Form A on the first set. There is an additional fee of $20.00 for the family that could have been included then or could be sent when the passports were mailed to NY CGI once the OCI is granted.
I took the photos at home, went to www.epassportphoto.com, sized it according to Indian Photo requirements, saved it, printed it at Costco and cut them to individual photos. The photo instructions are the most confusing. They need to be taken with a light background but not white. That is the main reason I took them myself. I made them off white. But, many people are doing them with a blue background. Some people were successful with a plain white background taken at Costco, CVS etc.
All photocopies (passports, PIO, Birth Certificate) had to be self attested as "True copy of the original" with our signature. I attested them for my son and daughter with my signature.
I mailed them using USPS Priority mail with Delivery confirmation. Then I started following the status using http://ociindia.nic.in/ociindia/OnlineOCIenquiry.jsp
Here is my timeline:
Mailed to NYCGI:1/09/2009
App Received by NYCGI:1/12/2009
Acknowledged: 1/23/2009
Photos Scanned: 1/29/2009
OCI Granted: 1/31/2009
Documents Printed: 2/03/2009
Dispatched to NYCGI: 2/04/2009
Received at NYCGI: 2/11/2009
OCI Received (in person): 2/16/2009
Once the OCI was received at the consulate, I went directly to get them stamped. I went to the consulate at around 9:00 AM. There was a line of may be 50 people. The doors opened at 9:10 AM. I Went in at 9:25 AM. The guy who was managing the line and directing people asked me to go to Counter # 3 for OCI. The gentleman who was in the counter looked like he was new to the job. I gave him print outs of the online status. He asked for the Indian passports and cancelled them right there and gave them back to me. Then, I gave him the US Passports and the PIO card for my son. He asked me to come back between 12:30 and 1:00 PM.
I went back around 12:30 PM. There was a line for collecting the OCI (actually a group of around 30 people gathered around the counter). The same guy opened the counter at 12:52 PM. Then one after another started going to the counter and got the passport and the OCI booklet after presenting the name. This process was so inefficient. He had dispatched only 8 or so in 15 minutes. Then we all suggested doing it the other way. Call the names on the passport and the respective person will collect it. Once this process started, it was dispatched to all of us in less than 3 minutes.
All in all, the process was smooth and took 5 weeks. This has been the smoothest of all my immigration dealings.
Thanks to all the members who passed along much needed information.
Good Luck to you all.
Note:
In addition to this wonderful site, I had gathered information from http://www.immihelp.com/nri/overseascitizenshipindia/oci-documents.html